Artistic Direction 2018

M~M 2018 pays homage and respect to those who have gone before; those ancestors and luminaries - the trail blazers who have brightened our paths. With the recent passing of founding artistic director Meme McDonald (stellar extreme-art and culture maker) the M~M 2018 Contemporary Songline will continue Meme’s legacy creating ‘extreme arts’ from the intimate to the monumental across the 80 km trek.

This year’s theme is EARTH.

In deeply honouring our many connections to earth and each other, ‘extreme’ art is conceptualised as 'experiences of slow' in a walk of contemplation, remembrance, and joyous celebration.

Earth is dynamic and living. It is dust motes and rocks, sand and streaming lava, it is a ritual element, a home to plants and animals, it makes paint for our bodies, is a medium for our crops - the ultimate life giver - as a celestial body it is our own blue fragile planet.

Earth is that which sustains us, that which nourishes us, and that which heals us. In spite of warnings from science and our own senses, we have allowed the Earth to warm to dangerous levels, and yet we continue to consume resources with little recognition of the ever looming threat.

Given our vital and inextricable relationship to this humblest of elements, and our home, how might we reimagine and equip ourselves to face the immensity of our changing climates - the “new climactic regime?”

In walking the land together, through song and extreme art interventions, we pay respect, sing life and build memories into our communities and our selves, in a salute to our home - the Earth - championing and committing ourselves to her healthy survival.